A large percentage of business are stuck, tied to narrow ways of thinking about themselves and their products. In the business environment you can’t be stuck and survive.
Using the techniques of stage Improv, companies and their employees can free their minds so that profit will follow. If you have ever watched “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”, a comedy sketch show by Drew Carey, then you have seen the techniques of Improv in action.
“Applying Improv skills to a business results in endless possibilities,” said Dina Amadril, owner of Marketing Improv, a Long Beach, CA-based training and consulting company. “Improv teaches you to think on your feet. Expose your employees to a Marketing Improv Skill Session and they will return as unstoppable idea generators who wreak profit on your business”
What are the 4 steps to free your mind so that profit will follow?
FOCUS/ ACCEPT/ BUILD/ LET GO
- Focus on the present tense. Don’t let any past failures or attempts derail your improv-ing. Attempt to view your product or service as if you are seeing it for the first time. Consider that any path you discard here could have been the path to the future pot of gold.
- Accept every idea without judgment. Richard Amadril from Marketing Improv warns “The quickest way to squash idea generation in a group is to have someone pass judgment on an idea, especially if that someone is the Boss”
- Build on the ideas presented. Using an Improv technique called “Yes, and…” one idea can sprout into 15 in minutes as Dina Amadril explains, “During the Yes, and … phase of the Improv each participant builds on the others ideas. An idea, ‘We can sell our product in sets’ becomes ‘Yes, and we can color code the sets’, ‘Yes, and we can let the customer choose the color on our website’ Ideas fly when you have no boundaries”.
- Let go when the time is right. You will notice when the ideas start to lag and people are ready to move on to the next topic. Wrap up the topic with a quick idea review and start on your next topic.
Using this simple four-step Improv technique will help build your business by revealing new paths to profit.